Silver Bear Winner Tomasz Wasilewski Tackles The Toughest Love Of All In 'Fools'

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you intend to watch the film.

Tomasz Wasilewski, winner of the Berlinale's Silver Bear, isn't afraid of the subject of his latest film 'Fools', even though it focuses on an incestuous relationship between a mother and her son, played by Dorota Kolak and Łukasz Simlat.

"I never intended to shock anyone. I just wanted to tell the story of the hardest love of all," the Polish director told Variety.

'Fools', produced by Extreme Emotions and filmed by Romanian DP Oleg Mutu, will premiere in the new Proxima section of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. New Europe Film Sales manages the sales.

"I was wondering what would happen if someone close to me came to me now, saying they were in a similar relationship. I suspect, and can only guess, that at this point in my life, it would not be a problem,” he adds.

Wasilewski met with experts analyzing the subject of incest while developing the screenplay. But his role is not to defend such pairings, he points out, also noting that he testifies to a consensual relationship between two adults.

"I think it's important to emphasize this: it has nothing to do with violence or abuse," he notes.

"I was just moved by the idea that these people are completely excluded by others. But if they're not hurting anyone, what right do we have to destroy their lives?"

Wasilewski, who gained artistic recognition through 'Floating Skyscrapers', about a gay relationship, and 'United States of Love', has always been interested in the kind of love the world doesn't understand or understand. not allow .

"I always thought of them as a married couple, not a mother and a son. I saw two people fall in love with each other, in incredibly difficult circumstances. When Dorota said that she couldn't do the movie because she didn't understand it, I didn't understand her,” he laughs.

Kolak, who is reuniting with Wasilewski after his acclaimed role in 'United States of Love,' admits it took him a while to see himself in the story. It was the conversation with producer Ewa Puszczyńska – behind Oscar-winning 'Ida' and Oscar-nominated 'Cold War' – that finally won her over. Puszczyńska is executive producer of another Karlovy Vary entry, "June Zero" by Jake Paltrow.

"This script obviously forced me to revise the answers that were simple for me until now. It forced me to open my head and my heart", says the actor.

"No love, not even maternal love, is ever simple or easy. And the relationship with adult children is always more complicated than love for a child. I am a mother of an adult daughter and our relationship has been rocky at times."

"I realized that sometimes life is unimaginably complex and movies are also there for us to finally look at each other. And try not to judge. Humanity has so many elements and nuances that it is cruel to marginalize someone simply because they have made choices different from those commonly accepted."

The film, which doesn't shy away from the physical side of Marlena and Tomasz's relationship, also marks the first erotic scene in Kolak's long career.

"I wanted to show a woman in her 60s. I've heard some voices say they should be younger, that it would make their sexuality a bit 'easier to digest'. But I didn't want to tell a story. about the beginning of love, I was more interested in its end,” says Wasilewski.

“Tomek helps me overcome my fears, insecurities and shame. He pushes me into completely unknown spaces. You could say that in this case, interesting always means difficult,” Kolak adds. "total confidence" in its director.

Although Wasilewski never intended to hide the film's controversial subject matter, he wanted to appease the audience, allowing them to spend time with the characters first. But when Marlena decides to bring home her other son, who is stricken with a debilitating illness, the reality she has carefully constructed for her and Tomasz begins to crumble.

“My grandmother was dying in a hospice. I was much younger then, but this feeling of leaving a helpless person behind, at the mercy of others… It felt terrible to me” , says Wasilewski.

“Marlena left her children, but she was forced to do so. She left them because she wanted to live. At some point, she starts to think of Tomasz as her son again. is simply terrifying."

To create a special place for the doomed couple (“At the end of the world, where the sea is rough, but the air does not move,” he says) Wasilewski wanted to show their isolation. Hoping that now, after the pandemic, the public will understand...